Miller loses state title game

AUSTIN - During the playoffs, Miller's boys basketball team had a knack for making things go its way.

Whether it was a critical basket, stop, rebound or whatever was needed, the Bucs inevitably found a way to get it.

But in the season's biggest game, there was plenty of will, but no way.

Miller's dreams of the school's first state championship in 62 years ended in a hail of missed shots and opportunities in a 44-33 loss to Argyle in the Class 3A state final on Saturday morning at the Frank Erwin Center.

Suffice to say, it was not the ending the Bucs (30-10) envisioned in their first state tournament appearance since winning the 2A championship in 1950 under the Corpus Christi High moniker.

"It hurt a lot," said Bucs guard Dale Perryman, who was in tears on the bench as the final agonizing minute ticked off. "I had planned on going home this weekend with a state championship trophy and celebrating spring break. But unfortunately, we came up short."

The 13th-ranked Bucs were hoping to follow District 31-3A rival West Oso as state champs, but instead found themselves caught in a grinding game against No. 11 Argyle (31-8), whose style was as vanilla as its uniforms, but mighty effective.

Despite not scoring 50 points in any of their six postseason games, the Eagles took home the gold thanks to their plodding, methodical approach that carried the day over Miller's up-tempo approach.

"They did a great job controlling the tempo of the game," Miller coach Maurice Bastian said. "We never were able to get our transition game going. As everyone knows, we try to get easy opportunities and buckets with our pressing and man defense, but they did a great job of controlling the tempo, sharing the basketball and they executed on the offensive end."

The crux of why the Bucs fell could be found in their grisly stat line.

Miller shot just 24.4 percent (11 of 45) from the field, and misfired on 18 of its 21 3-point attempts.

Despite those misfires, Miller trailed just 16-12 at halftime and with 4:04 left in the third quarter, took its only lead at 18-17 after a Perryman jumper.

But the Bucs couldn't build on that advantage, and with 2:52 left, Argyle's Connor York put his team back in front with a 3-pointer from the left corner. Just 56 seconds later, York drained a 3-pointer from the right corner for a 23-18 lead.

"Going into that (stretch), I don't think I'd made a three-pointer yet," said York, who finished with 13 points, one behind championship game MVP Clarke Overlander.

"(Teammates) were telling me to keep shooting. I'm a shooter, and that's my job. They were just getting me good, good looks and it's not hard to do your job when you get wide-open looks."

And that pivotal stretch ended up being Miller's window of opportunity that was slammed shut.

"When we got that lead, we were unable to capitalize (on the momentum)," Bastian said. "We missed several shots from the perimeter and got back into a funk. Argyle would take advantage of our mistakes and they're basketball 101 with their high IQ.

"They were able to execute and we couldn't get them rattled with our defensive pressure and I think that was the key this afternoon."

Marquis Lewis' 3-pointer with 53 seconds left in the third quarter got Miller within 24-21, but that was as close as the Bucs got the rest of the way.

The first half was an exercise in frustration for the Bucs. They made just five of 21 shots and missed several seemingly easy shots from close range. For the game, Miller scored just eight points in the paint after posting 32 in Thursday's 59-54 semifinal victory over No. 1 Waco La Vega.

"The lanes were very crowded," Perryman said. "When I would get by one man, there was another one waiting for me there. That kind of frustrated me. I couldn't play the game I know how to play."

Instead, the Bucs found themselves playing an agonizingly frustrating game, that of Argyle.

"I just don't think we were as patient as we usually are," Bucs guard Tyrell Clay added. "We didn't make them work enough on defense, either. We didn't get rattled. We just thought we had to score 60 points, like Coach said. Having a slow-paced game because we're a running team, I think that was the key."